Modeling a Townhouse

I am learning TREAT, so perhaps this is too simple of a question for you guys but I am kind of stuck... when TREAT asked me about the building I choose attached, considering that one wall of the building is attached to the neighbor's house, but when I check walls, all of them are set up to the outside, and so far I have not found the way to change the setting for that attached wall. Just for me to learn, is that attached wall considered towards living space? -considering that there is a firewall separating both units.

Replies to This Discussion

This is a great question that points to a fundamental tenet of energy modeling: we don't worry about surfaces (walls, floors, etc.) where there's no energy transfer. We assume that temperatures between adjacent units (or between conditioned bedrooms) are essentially the same, so UA∂T = 0 (the delta-T is zero), and there's no point in modeling the boundaries between them.

So, unlike detached single-family homes, that will have at minimum 4 walls, a floor, and a ceiling, attached units will often have fewer. The most "minimal" case is an inside apartment unit on a middle floor, which might have only one surface, a wall, on the Walls/Surfaces screen.

I hope this helps clarify. Remember, energy modeling is not the same as architectural modeling -- we don't need to worry about surfaces that are there for structural or aesthetic reasons, but that have no thermal transfer.

Just curious, exterior walls have negative energy transfer (energy loss), heat gain from sun exposure, wind, etc, so when modeled as adjacent to the outside, with the R value of all materials, there is a calculation of that lost energy. I am thinking that the firewall should be pretty energy neutral and so I was thinking it should be represented as wall adjacent to condition space; even though I understand that walls from inside the condition space are not modeled. But the other Townhouse is not part of this condition space.... maybe I am seeing this the wrong way... hmmm, love building science!